FIG. 1 illustrates a manual transmission 100 according to the prior art and a TGS lever device 110 for manipulating the manual transmission 100. The TGS lever device 110 moves the TGS lever 111 horizontally to perform a gear select operation and moves back and forth to perform a gear shift operation. The gear select operation and the gear shift operation are transmitted to the transmission 100 via a gear select cable 112 and a gear shift cable 113 to select a desired gear shifting stage (gear select operation) and then to perform a gear shifting operation (gear shift operation).
FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a front view and a side view of the TGS lever 110. A TGS lever housing 114 is fixed to the floor of a vehicle body and the TGS lever 111 is centrally formed with a pivot ball 111-1 and rotatably coupled to the TGS lever housing 114. The pivot ball 111-1 of the TGS lever 111 is protrusively formed thereunder with a shift arm 111-2 to pull and push the gear shift cable 113 (FIG. 1). The pivot ball 111-1 is protrusively mounted at the left side thereof with a select arm 111-3 to change the motion direction via a select lever 115 and to push and pull the gear select cable 112 (FIG. 1).
As a result, when the TGS lever 111 is manipulated to the left, a position for shifting to the first stage (first gear) and the second stage (second gear) can be selected as shown in FIG. 2. When the TGS lever 111 is manipulated to the right, a position for shifting to the fifth stage (fifth gear) and the reverse stage (reverse gear) can be selected. In the neutral state, a state for manipulating to the third and fourth stages (third and fourth gears) is selected as a default. Under the state where the gear select operation is performed, the gear shift operation is performed by manipulating the TGS lever 111 back and forth to shift to a desired shift stage or gear.
FIG. 3 illustrates a rotating stroke of the select lever 115 and a rotating stroke of the shift arm 111-2 when the shift operation and the select operation are performed. The rotating stroke of he select lever 115 is transmitted to the transmission via the gear select cable 112 (FIG. 1) to select a desired shift rail, and the rotating stroke of the shift arm 111-2 is transmitted to the transmission via the gear shift cable 113 (FIG. 1) to linearly move the selected shift rail and to mesh gears at the shift stages desired by the shift fork.
However, such a TGS lever device does not operate smoothly on more recently-developed 6-speed transmissions. In other words, FIG. 4 illustrates select states of a TGS lever device with a shift lever manipulating pattern having 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6 stages oppositely arranged and a R stage located on the left. FIG. 5 illustrates select states of a TGS lever device with a shift lever manipulating pattern where the R stage is located on the right. However, problems may occur in both of the two TGS lever devices shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 because of the excessive rotating angles to the left and right sides.
As illustrated in FIG. 6, where excessive rotating angles of a gear shift lever are required for a gear select operation, problems arise in that interference with a parking brake lever 130 installed nearby or a lack of a sufficient space from the parking brake decreases the manipulability of a shift lever 111. In this case, the gear shift lever may interfere with the body of a driver or a passenger, thereby causing inconvenience to the driver or passenger. This is especially problematic where the gear shift lever is positioned adjacent to the parking brake between the vehicles two front seats, as shown in FIG. 6.